TrekMovie.com LOST Finale Special: Everything You Need To Know To Leave The Island

Today we have a special Sci-Fi TV Update all about our favorite show from JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, LOST. Tonight, after six seasons, it all comes to an end in a big series finale event. We have compiled everything you need to know to prepare, including details, interviews, previews, and some fun stuff too. So get ready to get LOST for the last time.

TREKMOVIE’S GUIDE TO THE LOST FINALE

LOST series finale to be simulcast around the worldThe LOST series finale airs tonight on ABC at 9:00 p.m., but several countries around the world will be watching it along with America, if they so choose. ABC has announced that the U.K.’s Sky1 will simulcast the series finale with the U.S. West Coast broadcast (5:00 a.m. local time on Monday, May 24). Sky1 will then rebroadcast the finale during its normal 9:00 p.m. timeslot on Friday, May 28. Broadcasters in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and Canada will also simulcast the finale. It’ll also be broadcast faster than usual in other international markets. Here are the details:

Driven by fan demand – and regardless of the international time difference – the non-subtitled finale will be simultaneously broadcast with the U.S. West Coast telecast (May 23, from 9:00 p.m., PT) on Sky1 in the UK, Fox Italia and Telecom Italia in Italy, Cuatro Spain, Fox Spain and Portugal, Digiturk Turkey, HOT Israel. CTV Canada will broadcast the finale at the same time as the U.S. East Coast.

In total, 59 countries around the world will air the final episode from 24-48 hours after the U.S. broadcast, with subtitles for viewers in non-English speaking territories. The series is licensed as part of their existing ‘Hot from the U.S.’ agreements with Disney Media Distribution, which bring series such as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” to international platforms in a 24-48 hour window from U.S. broadcast.

Additional footage to be included in season six DVD/Blu-ray
“The End”won’t be the end after all. The two-episode series finale has already been extended from a 2 hour run-time to a 2½-hour run-time (9:00-11:30), but TV Guide Magazine reports that about twenty minutes of additional storyline will be included in the forthcoming DVD/Blu-ray release on August 24, 2010 (along with a complete series set):

“It’s in production now,” confirms the source, who couldn’t yet confirm the actual running time of the new scenes. “Damon and Carlton wanted to offer fans answers to additional questions they couldn’t get to in the body of the final show.”

Speaking of that home video release, according to TV Guide Magazine, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse say it will have “some pretty spectacular packaging.”

Lindelof: Jacob and the Man in Black are not the “The Epitome of What Lost Is”
“LOST” may have put a big focus on Jacob and the Man in Black in recent weeks, but that doesn’t mean the two are the key to the show:

“It would be mis-categorizing to think this is the epitome of what Lost is,” executive producer Damon Lindelof tells TVGuide.com. “Obviously the island was there before these babies were born, and lots of things were going on before they came there. What those stories are isn’t relevant to the story we told, which is the crash of Oceanic 815 and what the ultimate fates of the survivors are.”

And will that story’s conclusion be definitive?

“I wish that we could say that the finale is going to be enormously definitive,” Lindelof says. “We found that when we told people that we’ve got definitive answers coming, it’s not as definitive as the fans want it to be, therefore there’s this ongoing and vociferous debate about what things mean.

“All we can say is: Lost is only ending once,” he adds. “There’s only one finale. There’s not a question mark at the end of the end. There’s not a dot, dot, dot. This is our story and it’s over. Hopefully there’s going to be a lot of interpretation in its wake.”

Hurley says goodbye to LOST
Jorge Garcia (Hugo “Hurley” Reyes) says goodbye to “LOST” in a letter he wrote at Variety. Here are two snippets, click the source to read the entire letter:

At 5 a.m. on April 24, I became unemployed.

I just wrapped my six-season run on “Lost.” The job that went above and beyond anything I could have imagined was over.

When I auditioned for “Lost,” I was just another out-of-work actor struggling to land a pilot. When I first went in to meet the producers, there wasn’t any material for me, except a few sides they had for the character Sawyer.

I felt great about the audition; so great, in fact, that getting the part wasn’t important because I knew I couldn’t have done any better. Then I got the call that I was going to test, and that they were going to write scenes specifically for me. I remember noticing I was the only Hurley in the room waiting to test. I called my agent from the parking lot afterward and said, “I don’t know what it meant but it felt like a good thing.”

…

My last day on “Lost” was also my longest: 20 hours. Without going into details, I can say the shoot was dangerous, physical and wet. But what could be more appropriate? How else could we end this epic show without an epic marathon night of shooting? At the end of it all we all remarked how we expected the end to be more emotional for us, but we were too tired to cry.

I’ll admit I got a little teary with Matthew Fox. I thanked him for everything he taught me, including taking me on his trip to Japan to see Green Day that first summer of shooting. At the time, flying at the last minute to a foreign country was way out of my comfort zone, but then again nothing on “Lost” was ever in my comfort zone.

NY Times LOST: Time Talks Live event [VIDEO]
“LOST” producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Jorge Garcia and Michael Emersontook part in an interview with the NY Times on Thursday. Highlights can be found here, or you can just watch the entire video of the event starting with the embed below:

More interviews with cast and crew
Here’s a excerpt from Time.com’s three-part — “Retrospective” of sorts — interview with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. This part deals with the duo’s thought process in approaching the finale:

Time.com: …I know you guys were fans of the finale of “The Sopranos,” which some people loved and some people hated. I wonder if you feel to an extent that in order to be any good, the finale is going to have to tick off somebody?

Carlton Cuse: Absolutely. I mean, if the finale was not ambitious, it would not be in keeping with the show. And by being ambitious, I think we’re going to have – there are going to be some people who will be dissatisfied and you know, it’s kind of become pretty evident during the sixth season of the show that the sort of – the fans have broken into camps. There are the, you know, the show is about the journey and not about the destination and that’s how you should watch it. And then there are people who are getting really, really anxious and pissed off that they’re particular questions that they’ve sort of nurtured for many seasons, they’re starting to realize, oh my god that question that I have, that I care about, is not going to get answered.

Damon Lindelof: Or questions that they have are answered in unsatisfactory ways. Like, that’s what the whispers are? Really?

Carlton Cuse: Yeah, exactly. And so, we fully expect that there will be some percentage of the audience that will be unhappy, but we also think that there will be a different reaction right after the finale, and then over time. I mean, there’s going to be an emotional reaction that’s gong to come with the show’ ending, and people’s sort of immediate realization that they’re particular concern might not have been addressed. But we hope overtime, that the sort of deeper, kind of lasting impression will be that we – you know that we told the story that we wanted to tell, and right or wrong, that was our prerogative and the only way we could approach the show was to kind of keep doing all the way to the end what we’ve done all along, which was Damon and I sort of sitting together and going, you know, if we both thing something’s cool it goes into the show and trying to attack it on a very visceral, gut level. And we did that through 121 hours of the show, and we did it right through the finale. And we’re proud of the finale and you know, but we do recognize that there probably will be some, you know, there will be some blow back and we’re prepared for that. And we accept that that goes with the territory.

Check out the complete three-part interview at Time.com: Part One, Part Two and Part Three and two more interviews at Fancast and Popular Mechanics. Time.com also posted interviews with Terry O’Quinn, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox and Jorge Garcia.(in two parts, here and here). Here are some selected excerpts:

Terry O’Quinn

Was Locke’s faith misplaced, then?

“I think it was never placed. He desperately wanted to believe in something, and he to this point in his life never found anything that repaid him for believing in it. … [Until he found the Island and the belief] that it could be shared with everyone. He desperately wanted that to happen. He said he was a man of faith, but I also think that he desperately wanted people to have faith in him. So no, I don’t think he was ever satisfied. And that’s what makes him tragic. But a good man.”

Matthew Fox

On playing the part while not knowing what was in store for the characters in the finale:

“Don’t assume that we all didn’t know what was going to happen. I actually had some in-depth conversations [with Damon Lindelof] early in the season about it, so I could have some kind of understanding of what was going on.”

Jorge Garcia

On his reaction to the finale:

“I’m satisfied with the finale. I think both storylines that were introduced in the season, the finale wraps them up well. They make a bold choice. Anytime you do that on a show like this, we know we’re gonna get–the reactions will be mixed. It’ll be interesting hearing the reactions over the summer. It’s nice not being a writer around here when finale time comes around.”

Also, just in case we missed any interviews, The ODI has a nice round-up of all the various cast and writer interviews at this link.

Hints at the finale + LOST bites
Sonja Walger, who as previously reported is reprising her role as Penny in the finale, may have said too much in a recent interview with TV Guide Magazine:

And for those of you who have completely abandoned hope of any happily-ever-afters for these poor lost souls following the recent string of island casualties, Sonja Walger, whose lucky Penny turns up in the finale, offers us a ray of hope. When I asked her to tell me who gets the best ending, she said, “We all do and you’ll see why.”

Here are some remaining bites:

Man in Black (Titus Welliver) says there won’t be a “LOST” movie. [TMZ]

Is this leaked final page of the series finale script real? [SCI FI Wire]

Damon Lindelof tweeted that he’ll be making his final “Lost”-related tweet “for a while” at midnight, West coast time Sunday night. [Damon Lindelof]

Jack Bender, director of the finale, reveals that the final shot involves Terry O’Quinn and Matthew Fox and Hurly is also involved. The final scene has reportedly been known since season 1. [NY Mag Vulture Blog & The ODI]

Cast and crew discuss the emotional finale and why they fell there won’t be a movie based on the show. [E! Online]

Carlton Cuse reveals that the finale will be more character, less mythology. “We’re not going to tell you what you will and won’t know in the finale. The finale is much less about the mythology of the show and much more about the character resolutions. How do these character stories end and what happens to the people? That’s what Lost is about.” [E! Online]

Nestor Carbonell (Richard) says he “was very happy with the way they dealt specifically with [his] character…With what I read, they resolved a lot of the dynamics of the characters. They did a tremendous job, so I’m looking forward to the final resolution.”… [SCI FI Wire]

…And in general, Carbonell says the “finale is all about everyone’s resolutions.” [TV Guide Magazine]

Scotty Caldwell (Rose) reveals that more than one ending was shot: “I’m not absolutely sure about the final hows, wheres and whens because they shot more than one,” she says. “So I’ll be waiting like everyone else to see what they air.” [TV Guide Magazine]

The series finale is eligible for Emmy consideration after the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors on Wednesday made an exception to their rule that extended length episodes that are submitted can only run for two hours. [EW]

ABC is selling 815 vintage 16×20 collector prints of “LOST” cast images titled “Survivors” and “Summon the Smoke Monster”. According to the official site, the prints, available for $69.99, “will be custom printed and numbered on fine art, museum quality rag photo paper with deckled edges.” [Official LOST Photos]

“LOST” airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. on ABC from 9:00-11:30 p.m. The series finale is preceded by a two-hour recap special at 7:00 p.m.

VIDEOS AND IMAGES

Promotional stills from the series finale – “The End” [more at Dark UFO]